Nice post, and very informative. Especially for people trying to help ya.
Anyways you stated you were burning on DVD+RW's. First off RW's are better for just data burning. Not really for making backups of movies. Plus they're hella expensive.
It also sounds like your laptop is only a +R/RW DVD burner. While Im not quite so sure about your Desktop. If at all possible see if either will burn DVD
-R discs. If so then get yourself some of them. They're a lot cheaper and work better on more standalones.
Also checking out this thread:
http://www.fileforums.com/showthread.php?t=59975
Tyler!